November Monthly Roundup: Top IT Industry Articles
Posted on Mon, Dec 06, 2010 @ 02:21 PM
Each month, MCPc shares articles from last month that provide insight on prominent IT topics. In this article, we take a look at: How to make virtualization work best for your business, expert tips for troubleshooting, the (perhaps surprisingly) common future of telepresence, and how CIOs can position themselves to lead organizational transformations.
Virtualization
In Virtualization Meets Its Organizational Limit, John Dix faces a too-often-ignored truth about virtualization head-on: “If we are to get the most out of highly virtualized, cloud-ready environments,” he says, “we are probably going to have to rethink the way parts of IT are organized.”
Dix takes a look specifically at Cisco, which reorganized its traditional, siloed structure — organized in teams by platform, storage, network, etc. that each developed their own solutions — to instead have “an architecture team, a design team, an implementation team and, effectively, an operations team.” Now, all teams work together, taking a more holistic approach to the company’s complete IT environment.
Ratmir Timashev, president and CEO of Veeam Software, which recently completed a survey of 500 CIOs about virtualization, agrees:
“Without the correct strategy, organizations will never unlock virtualization’s full potential… What is needed is a change of perspective. Businesses must stop looking at a virtual environment as simply an extension of physical infrastructure. Instead, they must realize that virtualization can bring a host of extra benefits to data protection, but only if they change their approach to management. If they can do this, then organizations will be able to reap the benefits of virtualization. If not, then businesses must resign themselves to the fact that they will never be able to fully trust or exploit their virtual infrastructure.”
If your company is seriously considering virtualization, approach it from an organizational level first to determine how it can benefit the company overall. Then, make sure you have the structure and processes in place to ensure you get the most out of the investment and new infrastructure.
Troubleshooting
In Six Immutable Laws for Troubleshooting IT, Paul Venezia shares common practices he sees among top IT troubleshooters, including:
- They never work on the interface of a network device they’re currently using.
- They always make sure that they can get back to the original problem state, in case an attempted fix doesn’t work.
- They always document problems and their resolutions, so that if a similar issue occurs in the future it can be fixed rapidly.
For details on these, as well as the other three tips, see Venezia’s complete article.
Telepresence
Carl Weinschenk, in an article entitled A Pretty Picture for Teleconferencing, makes the case that “telepresence is moving from the periphery of telecommunications tools to a prime spot.”
Weinschenk shares a couple of examples of “normal – not exotic” use of telepresence, showcasing that as the technology continues to improve and simultaneously becomes more affordable, its adoption will surely increase:
- The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to open 14 teleconferencing centers to empower its mobile employees, and later improve its communications with other government agencies.
- The Maryland Department of Public Safely and Correctional Services will use teleconferencing to keep criminals off the street — they will participate in court and doctor’s visits by video.
Key takeaway for IT professionals: The business use cases for telepresence are endless, if you think creatively about how it can work specifically for your organization.
IT & Business Strategy
In Gartner: CIO As Business Transformation Leader, Don Reisinger cites a recent Gartner CIO advisory that argues IT’s unique position to help lead change within organizations. This is because IT typically lands at the center of navigating business transformations, either as a key enabler or a hinderer.
Reisinger states: “CIOs are positioned to play an integral role in corporate strategies as enterprises develop plans to emerge from the Great Recession. The key is knowing how to accomplish transformational change that fulfills the strategy of your CEO and fellow C-suite executives while keeping the business running.”
Gartner offers 10 questions to ask to determine how IT can help businesses achieve transformational goals — and the corresponding CIO actions for each. They are organized in the categories of: contextual, implementation and organizational. For example:
- Contextual: “What is the deadline for the change?”
- Implementation: “How complex is your infrastructure?”
- Organizational: “What is the impact on key and mission-critical processes?”
If as an IT leader you find yourself wanting to do more from a business-strategy standpoint, read the complete article, and see what advice you can glean from Gartner.
What Do You Think?
What articles, blog posts, videos or podcasts did you find interesting last month? Post a comment, and we’ll be sure to keep an eye on those sources for future wrap-up articles like this one.
This post is an MCPc blogging team collaboration.